BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

September 1, 2023

This is a new sort of problem I’m seeing more often in the clinic. Folks are coming in with painful wrists or even elbows that have come about from none other than texting!

It could be that your enjoying texting your friends, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or even just surfing the web in general on your phone. And overtime you notice your wrist’s, hands, or even elbow start to hurt. This can be a huge problem for a lot of people because it can take them away from their family and friends. Phone’s as a whole have been great at connecting everyone together, and once that gets snatched away from you it can be a scary thing.

So, with all of that said we’re going to discuss what text wrist is and how to fix it! That way you can get back to that smart phone of yours and not have to worry about missing out on all the comes along with it.

First off text wrist may be new in and of its self, but we have seen condition similar too it in the past. Golfers or Even tennis elbow can create pain around the elbow and wrists. They are just simply conditions that come about from over stress to the muscles/tendons of the wrist and elbow. The over stress from positions/movements involved with those activities can eventually create pain.

With text wrist it follows the same principle. By texting too much or just holding the phone in a certain position for too long you place a stress to the musculature of the hands, arms, and elbow. This stress overtime, if not controlled can lead to very big problems for many folks.

The key to not only treat but prevent text wrist is to manipulate that stress. To do that we focus on two main strategies.

The first is to simply change positions, and great practical way to do this with smart phones is to simply change hand positions. If your holding your phone in one hand, every 15-30 min just place it in the other hand. If your wrist is flexed while holding the phone; then try to extend it every so often.

The second tip is to take breaks. Every 30 minutes it’s a good idea to put the phone down and take 2-5 minutes where you rest the hand and wrist. This will also work well at changing the stress.

Try those two tips above, they are very simple, but they work! We’ve treated many folks in similar situations by pairing those two tips with other stratagies. They work so well at treating the pain and keeping it away because they deal with the root cause; which is just prolonged stress to the body.

That’s it for today, remember movement is medicine!

P.S. If you’ve tried those tips above but are still unable to text or surf the internet like you’d like to then feel free to shoot us a call at (804) 493-0002 to book an appointment today. Some folks with this condition may need more specific approaches to treatment along with some deep soft tissue work to calm the muscles down and get you back to your old self.